USS Harvey Milk?
Jeff and Daniel sent us links to an article that announces the intention of Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) to pressure Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to name a ship after the gay activist Harvey Milk. According to the Navy Times;
In his letter, Rep. Filner wrote “this action would be a fitting tribute to Mr. Milk’s support for equality, an ideal exemplified in the military’s recent repeal of its former Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy,” according to the press release.
According to the LGBT Weekly, Milk was a Navy veteran of the Korean War;
The late civil rights icon, Harvey Milk was a Navy veteran who began his service during the Korean War. In Korea, he served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake as a diving officer. Milk was also stationed at Naval Station, San Diego where he was a diving instructor. Milk, whose parents both also served in the US Navy, was honorably discharged at the rank of Lieutenant, junior grade.
I don’t know much about Milk because I have a habit of not watching any movie that has Sean Penn in it, and his isn’t a subject in which I’m interested, but I’m pretty sure that enough Navy personnel have been killed in the war against terror who deserve to have a ship named after them more than some activist who was shot by a political opponent.
According to Stuart Milk [Harvey Milk’s nephew], the christening of a ship USS Harvey Milk would boost the military’s image, while also boosting a sense of esteem among its gay, lesbian and bisexual members.
Yeah, because self-esteem is an important factor when talking about our national security.
Category: Military issues, Navy
@ 50 If your being pithy … that is funny! If your serious … I would have to question your sanity. The Sailors and Marines I have served with would differ. Either way I find HUMOR in all the ABSURDITY of daily life!
Obama is short cash, and all’s he needs is the TALK about naming a ship for Milk is enough to cash in at the GayTM.
MCPO: Next you’ll be telling us that Churchill was wrong about Naval tradition . . . . (smile)
So, does this mean that the navy recruiting campaing from the ’70s using the village people song is going to be revived as well?
I mean the one that they scrapped.
@ 53 … I know my Churchill. “Don’t talk to me about Naval tradition! It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash”.
OK … you got me there!
Lets get back point:
USS Valdez (FF-1096) NAMED FOR NAVY CROSS RECIPIENT
Phil Isadore Valdez—born on 13 April 1946 in Dixon, N.M.—graduated from Espanola (N.M.) High School in May 1965 and enlisted in the Navy on 1 November 1965. After completing basic training, he was trained at the Naval Hospital Corps School at San Diego, Calif. Advanced to the rating of hospitalman in May 1966, Valdez served at the Naval Hospital, Key West, Fla., until 19 December 1966 at which time he was transferred to the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, Fleet Marine Force, serving ashore in Vietnam near Danang.
On the morning of 29 January 1967, Valdez was assigned as corpsman with the 3d Platoon when that unit was flown in by helicopter to provide support for the embattled Company “H,” 2d Battalion. Upon landing, Valdez’ unit came under heavy sniper fire, and several marines went down as a result. The hospitalman sprang into action instantly. First, he ran about 70 meters across open land being raked by enemy fire to aid a fallen marine. He helped that man to a safer place and quickly dressed his wounds. After completing that task, he dashed back out into the hail of fire to assist another wounded marine some 50 meters away. Upon reaching his new charge, he positioned himself so as to protect the wounded man from the enemy fire and began to dress his wound. At that point, the enemy got his range; and Valdez fell to their fire, mortally wounded. His “. . . heroic action and selfless devotion to duty . . .” saved the lives of two wounded marines and, in recognition of his “. . . conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action,” HN Valdez was advanced to the rate of hospitalman, third class, and awarded the Navy Cross, both posthumously.
“lap the Air Force”,,,,as a Cat “Laps” milk?
Hehehehe
USS Edson (DD-946) Named for MAJ GEN Merritt A. Edson MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT and first CO of the what is considered the first Special Operations Unit in the US Military … Edson’s Raiders.
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR to
COLONEL MERRITT A. EDSON
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the First Marine Raider Battalion, with the First Parachute Battalion attached, during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands on the night of September 13-14, 1942. After the airfield on Guadalcanal had been seized from the enemy on August 8, Colonel Edson, with a force of eight hundred men, was assigned to the occupation and defense of a ridge dominating the jungle on either side of the airport. Facing a formidable Japanese attack which, augmented by infiltration, had crashed through our front lines, he by skillful handling of his troops, successfully withdrew his forward units to a reserve line with minimum casualties. When the enemy, in a subsequent series of violent assaults, engaged our force in desperate hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, rifles, pistols, grenades and knives, Colonel Edson, although continuously exposed to hostile fire throughout the night, personally directed defense of the reserve position against a fanatical foe of greatly superior numbers. By his astute leadership and gallant devotion to duty, he enabled his men, despite severe losses, to cling tenaciously to their position on the vital ridge, thereby retaining command, not only of the Guadalcanal airfield, but also of the First Division’s entire offensive installations in the surrounding area.
/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
And finally: USS Hepburn (FF-1055) ADM Arthur Japy Hepburn, The Hepburn Report, Modernized the US Military and Converted the US Navy from coal to oil (the coal to oil story is a great one). Arthur Japy Hepburn (October 15, 1877 – May 31, 1964) was an admiral in the United States Navy, whose active-duty career included service in the Spanish–American War, World War I, and World War II.[1] He held a number of high posts in the years between the World Wars, including Director of Naval Intelligence (Office of Naval Intelligence), a U.S. representative to arms control conferences, and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet. He was born on October 15, 1877 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1897 and served in the Spanish–American War. He participated in the defeat of Admiral Cervera’s Spanish Squadron off Santiago, Cuba and was subsequently commissioned at the rank of Ensign. Thereafter, Hepburn assisted in surveys of the Pacific and performed a variety of other duties, until the First World War, where he commanded the seized German liner Kaiser Wilhelm II and as a submarine commander, until he was ordered to Europe in July 1918 to command the naval base at Queenstown, Ireland. After the armistice, he served in the USS Chester, inspecting German naval ships and aircraft as set out in the terms of the Armistice Treaty. In 1919 he was appointed the Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, until 1922 when he became Chief of Staff of the American Naval Detachment in Turkey. Thereafter, he served a wide variety of important posts. He took command of the battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48) in May 1925; became Director of Naval Intelligence in July 1926; he served as Chief of Staff with the Battle Fleet and the United States Fleet from 1927 to 1930; and in May 1931 he took command of Submarine Forces, U.S. Fleet. Between 1932 and 1933, he served as a naval member to the Geneva Conference (Limitations of Arms Conference) as Naval Adviser to the Geneva Delegation in Switzerland and as the American Representative… Read more »
Chief don’t you go making sense there… Libs don’t like that and people here know that you are preaching to the choir.
If we are about making people happy why don’t we make the scientologists happy and name a ship after L Ron Hubbard… Shit money would flow then.
@63 – Well I’ll be damned if I didn’t just learn something. The Grand Poobah of crazytown was actually a Marine Reservist and then commanded two ships during WWII.
CI just don’t compare official records of his service to those of the crazies… It is funny.
Harvey Milk, who was close friends and political allies with the Rev. Jim Jones, the mass murderer.
[…] Yes, He’s A Bigot Posted on April 25, 2012 9:30 pm by Bill Quick This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » USS Harvey Milk? Jeff and Daniel sent us links to an article that announces the intention of Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) […]
“According to Stuart Milk [Harvey Milk’s nephew], the christening of a ship USS Harvey Milk would boost the military’s image, while also boosting a sense of esteem among its gay, lesbian and bisexual members.”
Because we want them to feel FABULOUS!(Spreads arms out in the biggest gay impersination that he can do)
They can modify their uniforms with sequins, there will be nightly Village People performances, and a Best Drag Queen contest in the Chief’s mess every Friday night.
The Ship’s Store will start carrying “anal lube and condoms” in bulk, and the ship’s barber will be converted to a designer hair stylist.
1# Exactly.
Unless Harvey’s body has been kept in a mortuary cooler all this time, wouldn’t he be spoiled Milk by now?
I can never resist a bad pun.
Do what they do in the ATL… name it after everyone and hyphenate- William B. Hartsfield- Maynard H. Jackson Int’l Airport, … USS Harvey Milk-Richard Simmons. Name it after more than one person ala the ATL- that should end the controversy!
[…] supervisor used a Ouija board to contact the spirit of Harvey Milk to consult with the phantom on the naming of a ship in his honor; Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he believes he made contact with […]